Adolescents with "conduct" problems continue to be less successful later in life.

[Sarah Hanawald]

This is really interesting. A British group did a longitudinal study of just over 3,000 adolescents, starting in 1946. Teachers were asked to evaluate the children's behavior at ages 13 and 15. Those children who were judged to have either mild or severe conduct problems continued to have problems throughout life. The researchers specifically looked at alcohol abuse, divorce, early unplanned pregnancies, social class and a vague "happy with family life." You can read the whole report here.

What strikes me about this (besides a sort of "duh") is that while the obvious solution might be to try to find a way to motivate kids to behave better, I wonder. What if the root cause of the later problems is not the children's failure to conform to expectations, but the constant haranguing they experienced during their adolescences spent in a school that didn't meet their needs?

Is the solution to try to change students or to change the environment?